if your computer just doesn't seem to be working correctly and you're out of
ideas try this open up Windows device manager and look for anything marked
with a yellow exclamation point you'll usually find them under a section called
other devices but what does that mean and how do you fix it well in modern
versions of Windows the operating system can automatically recognize most of the
hardware inside or attached to it this is possible because each device you
connect to your PC has a unique identifier built into it that tells
Windows hey I'm a pixel 7 or I'm an RTX
4080 or I'm a USB mouse Jiggler designed to make it look like my owner is working
after Windows identifies what the device is it can install the correct driver
which is a piece of software that helps the device communicate with your
computer now some drivers are pre-loaded into Windows While others can be
downloaded from Windows update meaning that you usually don't have to think
that much about making sure you have the correct drivers so then what's the deal
with these exclamation points well occasion generally this identification
process can go wrong Windows also doesn't have drivers for absolutely
everything and in some cases a device can just straight up malfunction leaving
you with a rather cryptic error the simplest thing to do in these cases is
to run a Windows update cycle to see if the system can fetch the driver
automatically on the second try but if that doesn't work there are still a few
other steps you can take if it's unclear what exactly the problematic device is
say if it's labeled unknown device you
can double click on it then click the details tab in the drop down menu select
Hardware IDs then copy paste the result into a web search that should help you
identify both the manufacturer of the device and the exact part number which
allows you to go to the manufacturer's website download and at least attempt to
install the current driver for it in most cases that should solve your
problem but what if it doesn't if a missing driver isn't the cause of your
error there are things you can do and we're going to tell you right after we
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of those situations where the oldest piece of advice in the book can also be
the most helpful try taking that problem device which you've already identified
unplugging it and plugging it back in you can either quite literally do this
or you can do a bit of a soft unplug and
plug-in by right-clicking the Troublesome Gadget selecting uninstall
then rebooting your PC with the device plugged in to see if it gets recognized
properly the second time around sadly though this tried and true method isn't
foolproof and if you're still having issues you might have a setting
somewhere that is interfering with your Hardware this is particularly common
with USB devices so what you can do is try going into your power options from
the Legacy control panel clicking change plan settings then change Advanced power
settings under USB settings set USB selective suspend to disabled and reboot
your system once again this could help the system properly recognize that Rogue
device but failing that updating the firmware of your PC or of the device
itself or updating your BIOS might get the error to disappear if it doesn't you
might still be okay though because having one of these errors in device manager doesn't always indicate a show
stopping problem there are some programs that can cause unknown devices to pop up
these tend to be programs like virtual machines or vpns that install well
virtual hardware and in some cases even
after you've uninstalled these programs some of these entries can remain in
there but with the dreaded yellow exclamation point of Doom in which case
you can usually just uninstall them from the device manager window without too
much drama if it's not a virtual device by this point it is possible in a
probable that you have a device that either is no longer functioning
correctly or simply doesn't have available drivers for your operating
system this is particularly common when you move from semi-compatible operating
systems like from Windows 8 to Windows 10 or from Windows 10 to Windows 11. you
can sometimes Force the previous operating system driver to install and
that can fix it but in other cases you might be just Plum out of luck and it's
time for an upgrade if that's not the case though if you have one of these
stubborn errors and you just can't get it to go away but your PC is working
normally there is always the option of leaving it and growing into the type of
person who's okay with that I mean our imperfections are make us special right
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